1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image file management apparatus, an image file management method, and a storage medium, and more particularly to a technology for protecting attribute information recorded in association with image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
The market for image pickup apparatuses, such as digital video cameras or digital cameras, which capture an image of a subject to generate and store image data in a storage medium has recently expanded. This market expansion has been accompanied by emergence of a printer that can directly connect with a digital video camera or digital camera to load image data stored therein without using any computer and can select and print desired image data among the loaded image data. Photo-finishing laboratory print services using such a printer have expanded as well.
For a printing apparatus, such as the above-mentioned printer, as a method for loading image data captured by a digital video camera or digital camera, use of a removable memory card may be advantageous in terms of transfer rate. Thus, a large number of printers equipped with memory card connection slots have been marketed.
An image file generated with, for example, a digital camera ordinarily includes image data and attribute information, which contains shooting setting information and shooting date information. Accordingly, in the printer, attempts have been made to obtain high print image quality by using shooting setting information included in the ancillary information to change printing conditions.
However, the attribute information may contain private information, such as a photographer name, a telephone number, or a mail address, in addition to the shooting setting information. In the case of using the above-mentioned photofinishing laboratory print services, such private information may possibly be read together with image data via a printer, thus causing insecurity among users.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-69942 discusses a method for preventing leakage of information accompanying image data, unless otherwise wished by a user, by encrypting attribute information associated with the image data for each type of information and recording the encrypted attribute information in a file header of the image data.
According to the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-69942, specific attribute information of the image data is always in an encrypted state. Thus, the user himself has to release the encrypted state when copying the image data into a computer to use the attribute information. As a result, management of information regarding user's privacy among the ancillary information associated with image data is complex.